OT: heat house with car engine

When the engine is not producing power (i.e., just idling) it does not produce enough heat to require a 2" hose a 3/4" heater hose is more than adequate.

I know guys with 1800cc Subarus in airplanes that use 3/4" heater hose to the radiators - and work the engines hard producing minimum 80HP

Reply to
clare
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snipped-for-privacy@voyager.net (natp) wrote in news:4d952130.2107091@216.168.3.44:

Sure, but the heat thus generated won't have much effect on an enclosure larger than one average room.

Use lots of blankets.

Reply to
Tegger

It would be very inefficient. Why not just make a stove of some type to burn the gasoline in the building? Looks like a lot of wood laying around I'd think it wouldn't be that hard to keep one's self warm.

Reply to
FatterDumber& Happier Moe

Some of the survivors of the Japan earthquake/tsunami are sheltering in schools without heat. Is it possible to use a car engine to safely heat the interior of a building?

Could you disconnect the radiator, bring it indoors, and use hoses to connect it to the rest of the car outside? Garden hoses have a smaller diameter than radiator hoses but could you use several hoses in parallel? (What sort of adapter would you use?)

Is there another way to do this?

Reply to
natp

The only way I see this making any economic sense is if this was an off the grid cabin and the engine was running a gen set. Piping the cooling water to a radiator inside would not be that tough, just be sure the exhaust gas is going away from any openings in the house.

Reply to
gfretwell

It might be if they could get gasoline, but lines for that are up to

12 hours long.

I have a feeling the car's water pump couldn't hnndle the distance.

Move to Florida?

Reply to
mm

The only problem, other than massive inefficiency, is gasoline is in VERY short supply in most affected areas.

A scrap wood burning stove would be much better.

Reply to
clare

natp wrote the following:

A wood burning stove would be more practical. There is probably enough wood debris laying around to last months.

Reply to
willshak

In the disaster zone there are widespread gas shortages. This is week 3.

As far as wood stoves, they would work but you have to vent them. Not a trivial problem.

So far, no one has so far considered how they did heat their homes:

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This is the most common type of heater in Japan. It sits on the floor, weighs only a few pounds, and can be moved around easily. Its fuel is kerosene. In the event of an earthquake or somebody hitting it by accident, there is a mechanism that pulls down the wick to turn it off quickly in order to prevent a fire.

It would appear that the average household had many many gallons of kerosene on hand.

The need for electricity is as great as heat. In which case the car battery can be considered. I've run emergency 12 v fluorescent lighting on one for many days, and if the car still runs, you can recharge it.

Now the issue of cogeneration, which is what a car does (power for lights/radio, heat for the interior and locomotion) is interesting and I see no small generators that do that (heat and power). Not uncommon as you go way up the scale.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Thies

google passive house, with enough insulation a big heat source is not needed.

at some point with energy costs so high passive supewr insulated homes will be necessary.

Reply to
bob haller

Many of the homes have smaller sometimes portable heating systems. Kerosene, propane, and electric. The rural Japamese are a bit more used to not having the entire house heated to 70deg 24/7.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

Why don't they just burn all the lumber from the houses ? They will need to remove it to rebuild.

Jr.

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Reply to
Jerry Ohio-2

Too far to swim.

Reply to
krw

When we lived in Vermont, we had a wood stove. Though we never had a major power outage (close) it was comforting to know that we had a backup to the furnace. We used less than 1/4 cord of wood a year (only used in the evenings when it was below zero) but I kept a cord around for an emergency.

Reply to
krw

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